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So hm... Seeing that Mangagamer (some NSFW pictures in the link. woo they finally changed their mascot) released it's new Visual Novel called Kira-Kira (VNDB link) a few days ago, I was interested in opinions whether it's worth it's price to buy (36,95 Euro)
I couldn't find any opinion about the japanese version here either, hence the new topic.
Some game information:

Spoiler for Game + character information, plot summary etc. spoiler for saving space.:

Spoiler for game facts:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Kira-kira (キラ☆キラ, Kira-Kira?) is a Japanese Adult Game created by OVERDRIVE the Japanese software brand. Kira-Kira has Media franchiseed with Apparel, Manga, Goods, Music Instruments. An official English translation was released download-only in June 2009.

Spoiler for plot summary written by Mangagamer:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plot summary by Mangagamer:

Shikanosuke Maejima is a student at Oubi Academy, a school of a missionary nature. He doesn't visit his club. He doesn't put much effort into his studies. All he really does is show up at his part time job. In short, his life could be better.

All this changes when he meets Kirari Shiino at work. Kirari is a strange girl, and soon Shikanosuke finds himself joining a punk band. This is where the story begins.

The members of the band are Shikanosuke, Kirari, Shikanosuke's childhood friend Chie Isurugi, and a rich yet sickly girl by the name of Sarina Kashiwara. The four of them are members of the Second Literature Club, which has little in the way of active members and which is scheduled to be canceled. The band is their way of saying farewell to their club.

Though ill-prepared for the challenge ahead, the members go through eccentric training, and eventually succeed in rocking Oubi Academy's cultural festival with their debut performance.

And that should have been it. The members should have been satisfied, and they should have returned to their normal school lives.

However, their final performance at a local music theater ends up as a hit on the Internet, and they receive requests from theaters far and wide who want them to come and perform.

What now? Exams are coming up, and the families are opposed to the band.

But none of that matters!

The four of them embark on a trip through Japan, armed with their makeshift musical instruments and aboard a rickety van that could come apart at any moment. It is to be their final project as academy students.

Oh and Mangagamer failed to mention something important which I'm gonna put in the main hero's character information

Spoiler for Character informations:

Spoiler for Kirari Shiino:

Kirari is the vocalist of the band.
She meets Shikanosuke when she begins work at the restaurant where he works.
Her family is very poor, and she works mornings and evenings to make ends meet. However, her cheerful, spontaneous attitude normally masks this hardship. Her permanently wild hair and her bright smile are her trademark features.

Spoiler for Sarina Kashiwara:

Sarina is the guitarist.
She comes from a wealthy family that is funding the academy. Because of her weak constitution and her grandfather's strict upbringing, she has precious few friends in school. Her character is refined and her demeanor is quiet, but she possesses a strong will.
She is close to Kirari, whom she considers an irreplaceable friend.

Spoiler for Chie Isurugi:

Chie is Shikanosuke's childhood friend. She plays the drums.
Because she had to repeat a grade due to family circumstances, she is a year older than Shikanosuke. She is also the president of the Second Literature Club, which Shikanosuke and Sarina are part of. Possibly because of what she has had to go through, Chie is mature and thoughtful, and acts as the sense of reason of the band. However, she also keeps a tight leash on herself, disguising her laid-back and timid nature.

Spoiler for Shikanosuke Maejima:

Shikanosuke is the hero of this story. He plays the bass.
Initially he has no interest in band activities, but a turn of events causes him to join in anyway.
A former member of the tennis club, he had to leave that club because of certain issues. Shortly after that his girlfriend dumped him, and he now lives a dejected life.

Spoiler for minor spoiler about him:

Only the girls know that he is actually male, but he has to perform as a girl during the concerts and such for some reason.

Spoiler for HQ Opening movie (there's no need to click on the HQ icon):

So is there any one here who played either the english or the japanese version? I'm wondering how long are the character routes, is the humor similar to the funny Edelweiss (seeing that the creator is the same japanese company), how did you liked the story, how interesting you found the character-routes, and other sort of impressions-opinions.
If you played the english version I'm also interested to know the quality of the translation, as Edelweiss was "not quite good" in that regard (I think it was quite confusing for a non-english native like me).
The plot summary (and some charactertraits too) looks kinda like how I imagined K-On to be (except the protagonist's circumstances obviously).

---------
Well those ears don't bother me really, they kinda look like my own lol. (And no I'm no monkey, it's just a characteristic family-trait).

I've heard the translation is a lot better than Edelweiss was, but there are still several inconsistencies especially at the later parts. It's somehow sad, that fan-translations are largely more accurate/detailed translations than the commercial works. Shouldn't it go the other way around?

I think I'm gonna give it a try when my new card arrives (they didn't accepted my existing cards for some reason *sigh*).
I wish they could have made a short free demo so one could gouge the translation quality and see the character introductions or something.

edit: and I also dislike it's solely digital distributed. I kinda want to have it on a shelf. Some shiny looking box would be cool even though it makes the price more expensive. They could have made two versions, one download only, and one internationally shipped boxed version (or even send a japanese original boxed version with some kinda localizing patch).

Its honestly one of the best eroge I've ever played in my life. There were some parts where the writer could have fleshed out some scenes, create some less abrupt ending (Kashiwara route ended a little too soon imo..) and where there could have been more graphics that related to the text.

But its great overall. I highly recommend it, music is great too.

I hated K-on, but I really liked this.

Also wondering but is there multiple endings for some characters, asking this to whoever got 100% completion.

my friend tell me there is 5 bad ed (including the yaoi ed ), 3 ed for each girl, and the true ed that unlocked after you saw all the ed

damn, I hope this will get an anime since the ps2 ver. is out this year and there's already some music concert (featuring the real star generation) for this game and others rock 'n roll game by overdrive

Does the true end start right after you finish the last girl? Or is it like FSN/Tsukihime style and has it right on the title screen after you're done?

edit: My friend who completed it before me is asking if its the ending where

Spoiler:

if its the ending where the MC recovers from depression and plays with murakami and aki then

edit 2: Just finished Kirari Route....I hated her at first, but she had the most beautiful route ;_; I inadvertently saved the best for last ;_;

edit 3: So many edits...for those who are curious one route run through is about as long as one route in Fate/Stay Night. So around 13-15 hours. Other routes are longer (kashiwara's is the shortest), Kirari is the longest, chie is mid sized. All of them share the first half though.

I finally got it. And lol at the big guy (screenshot) , he's like almost as awesome as Clannad Sunohara (or they might be on the same level), I keep laughing on him so much.

Spoiler for Murakami:

Quote:

Rival club: "If we win, we'll get your day off. We'll go on dates..."
Murakami: "Hey...
It just dawned on me, if we lose, do I have to go on a date with you guys too?"
Rival club: "You don't have to go"
Murakami: "I'm disappointed"

The other quote I laughed so much was:

Spoiler for Watching a Live performance DVD about Sex Pistols:

Quote:

Kashiwara:"Why did he cut his arm on the stage or struck someone with his instrument?"
Murakami: "If you're going to do a band, something like this should be your goal."
*some lines later*
Kashiwara:"I see. I really don't want to, but if I have to, I'll hit the audience with my instrument."

My only complaint so far is Kirari's voice. It's just... loud, whiny, and sharp while the others sounds quiet and normal. Surprising how is she going to be the singer with such a voice, it irks me a bit.
Anyway I made some other screenies too if anyone's interested and curious.Punkrock is all about appearance!The very first practice

So which girl should I first aim for first? Shall I go with Kirari, because after finishing her I could turn the voice-acting back on? (There's no way I'm going to listen on her with voice on)

------------
I'm on Kashiwara's route by the way, I love the game's humor so far. I actually think it's even funnier than Edelweiss was. The fuck-training was like pure gold, I probably haven't laughed so much since EVE Burst Error maybe.

Spoiler for joke @fuck-training:

Quote:

"It was a very nice fuckin' tea. Thank you very much, fuck."

I wish they would have made the option to mute specific characters down, like some games used to do nowadays, so I wouldn't have to listen on Kirari.
She's like every sentence she says either has an "ANO NE!" (I guess it's something fillerish as IDK it's meaning) or a "DAIJODA" (~it's all right) (and I think there's a third something she frequently says).

Well I wouldn't say pervy on it (that'd mean I'm also some sort of pervert I think ), as I've probably read about 8 hours of the story (I'm advancing slowly this time), and I haven't seen anything echii yet. It's basically like an alternative K-ON Visual Novel, really nothing extraordinarily weird. Even the characters kinda harmonizes with their K-ON counterpart in a loose sense IMO.

@ehrik, thanks I really didn't know that. Even the review I've read about the japanese version said that the option was missing. That's probably an improvement caused by the localization (and what a nice feature is it to mute Kirari down )

Anyway I reached my first ending! The GAY ending! Oh, God, I laughed so much on that shit... Seriously I haven't expected that twist!

Spoiler for heavy spoiler about the GAY end, which is a bad end.:

Quote:

"My love will not change even if you're a man!"
"Your beauty and my love is real no matter if you're a girl or boy. Please spend your life with me..."